My Brother's Funeral
by speedermeen
Summary: Richie Tozier had always known that Mike Wheeler was his twin brother and not his cousin. Richie hadn't expected the kid to die at 14. As Mike's friends talk about the Mike they knew, Richie discovers it's not the geek he'd known. He finally feels a connection to his twin and needs to know how Mike died. But what he gets is not what he expected.
1. Prolouge

_**Ok so I messed with Richie's timeline. Also, trigger warning. Richie lists suicide of a possible cause of death. Idk kf that matters to any of you. Also, even though I'm not in the It fandom, someone wanted me to write this. I wrote Richie using what I've seen from videos (because Finn Wolfhard). And I know Richie curses, so I just bleeped it out. Amd Dustin curses too, but pssh. And in later chapters (they're mostly going to be short) about Mike's death will be what I think is going to happen in season 3. If I get enough reviews saying that you want me to write that, I will. Also... REVIEWS PLEASE :) .**_

 **December 5, 1985**

Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier didn't like to visit his cousin, Mike. Well, technically, twin brother, but that's a long and complicated story that Mike didn't know about and Richie's mom was too lazy to keep a secret. But basically it meant that trips to Indiana were awkward and boring.

Mike was a loser, like Richie. He guessed it ran in the family. But Mike was a different type of loser. He was a geek and a nerd. He cared about school and played games like Dungeons and Dragons, watched movies like Star Wars. Richie would die before sitting a basement with Mike's friends and playing DnD again. (Yes, again. On his last visit, two years ago, Mrs. Wheeler and his mother had thought it would be a good idea for Richie to sit in on the game Mike raved about. It was crazy boring.)

So when Mrs. Tozier put down her fork and announced that the family was taking a trip to Indiana in two days, Richie- who hadn't been expecting her to say anything along those lines and had been taking a sip of his milk- choked on his drink and splashed it everywhere on his face.

"WHY?" He'd yelled before even reaching for a napkin.

That's when his mom- who had a solemn resting face- began to cry. Richie's father ignored the act and looked at his son. And he told him why.

"Your brother's dead."

Richie never felt a connection to his geek brother. He'd seen him seven times in his life, and despised each trip. And even though Mike was so close, Richie never felt a longing for his twin.

Until now.

Slowly, he reached for the napkin he desperately needed. He dried his face with numb hands.

"How?" He asked.

"Aunt Karen doesn't want to say," his mom told him. Well, not his mom. Really, his aunt. Karen was his actual mom. "It's sort of a secret."

Richie scowled.

His mom was still sniffling and excused herself for bed. Richie soon followed her act of leaving the table, scurrying off to his room before his father could call him back for the dishes.

As he lay alone in the darkness, Richie contemplated the death of his brother. Dead, at fourteen. And his death? A secret?

Richie remembered back to his last visit. Who was that one kid that got lost in the woods? Bill? No, Bill was Richie's friend. Mike had a friend named... Will! The boy that "came back to life".

Every night, when he thought Richie was sleeping, he'd sneak out of the room they'd shared. Richie only followed him once, to the basement, where he sat in that odd blanker fort and spoke into his nerdy walkie talkie.

That wasn't the only odd part of Mike's behavior. He didn't let Richie eat any of the Eggos.

And he seemed... depressed. Richie wondered if the secret was suicide.

Richie's head was spinning and he wasn't even tired, so he snatched his glasses off his nightstand and ran to his desk. Reaching into his school bag, he pulled out his science notebook and tore a sheet of paper out. He grabbed a stubby- and sticky?!- pencil from the bottom of his bag and began to write down his thoughts.

"Zombie Boy", he wrote in one corner. A few centimeters from that his scribbled "Walkie Talkie". Under that he put "No Eggos" and adjacent to that he jotted "Depressed".

"Aw f*ck it, this sh*t is even more d*mn confusing," he muttered to himself.

He crumpled up the paper and tossed it in the trashcan across the room. He'd have to ask Eddie about it in the morning.

Wait! That gave him an idea.

Anytime he couldn't figure something out- which was a lot- or was too lazy- even more often- he asked his friends.

He'd ask Mike's friends.


	2. Richie Hates Ties

**December 8, 1985**

Richie and his parents drove half the distance one day and the other distance the second. Richie could- and would **-** swear like a sailor, even when he wasn't couped up in a car for 18 in total... by the end of the trip his parents were ready to drive right off the rode and plummet them all into a certain death.

But somehow, they made it. Just in time for the funeral, too. Swearing, Richie changed into his black suit in the car as his parents met up with Aunt Karen and Uncle Ted outside of the church.

His cousin- sister!-, Nancy was there, holding baby Holly. But she wasn't with her parents. She was standing next to two teenage boys her age. One had beautiful hair. The other was kneeling down and talking to a boy about Richie's age. From the bowl cut, Richie could tell that it was Zombie boy himself, Will. The group walked into the graveyard together, leaving Richie struggling with his d*mn tie all by himself.

When he'd finally folded it, he was angry and sweaty and cursing under his breath like crazy. He was angry and with that little sense of decency he had, he realized it wasn't a good idea to storm into a funeral, especially if he were late like that.

He gave himself a minute to calm down before jogging over to the group. He snuck into the back of the group. People were giving speeches. Richie shivered and sighed. This better not take long.

The Aunt Karen and Uncle Ted had finished talking. A kid- a familiar one- with a mop of curly brown hair stepped in front of the casket to face everyone. Richie tried to remember the boy's name... Dustin? Yeah. Richie bundled his coat around him and adjusted his glasses.


	3. Dustin

"Hi, uh. I don't really know what to say. For the past 24 hours I've been staring at a blank piece of paper and hundreds of photos, but I came up blank with what to say today in hour of my best friend. I could tell you about all the times he saved our- the party's- *sses (sorry Preacher guy) while playing DnD. Or I could tell you about all the brillant ideas he had for our science projects. I could tell you about his lightning fast gaming fingers. But that wasn't Mike. He was just helping out the party. That's what he would say. And he wouldn't want me to tell you about all that. I don't you guys would care. You'd pretend to care, shed a few tears as I tried my best to explain our game. This morning I took a walk. I don't really know what for. Maybe to get my mind off him or the funeral. Maybe to get inspiration for this. Well, I got inspiration. As I walked through the Hawkins, my feet led me to the quarry. The very same quarry where Mike almost died. This mouthbreather was chasing us- El had made him piss his pants, but he thought it was Mike who had done it. That mouthbreather and his cronie chased us toward the quarry and cornered us. He pulled out a switchblade and threatened to cut my teeth out- yeah, I know, kind of insane- if Mike didn't wet himself. If Mike didn't jump into the quarry. So, Mike, at twelve years old, jumped off the edge of a cliff for his best friend."

 _Holy sh*t,_ Richie thought. He wondered if that's how Mike died, then realized that was two years ago.

"As you know, he didn't... El saved him. But the reason I brought that up is that in that moment two years ago, Mike was Mike. He saved me. And in the moment this morning, Mike was with me. I sat out on the edge and talked to him. I thanked him. I ranted to him. I was with him. In a way that I will never be again."

The boy's voice cracked on the last word and he broke down in tears. One of the older teenage boys Richie had seen with Nancy- the one with the great hair- ran up to comfort him and bring him back to the group.


	4. Lucas

A boy with dark skin and quite a few inches on the former speaker stood in front of everyone and cleared his throat. Silence fell.

"In our party, we follow our rules like religion. whoever draws first blood- who ever says something or punches or pushes first- has to apologize first. When we were looking for Will, Mike and I got into an argument about El. I didn't know her as well as he did and I didn't trust like I do now. Mike drew first blood and, though I heard it took a great amount of convincing to get him at my house, he apologized. But that's who Mike is. He was our paladin and our leader. If something needed to be done, he would do it, for the sake of the party. Our selfless leader is gone. Gone because of who he was. He saved our lives so many times and the last time it seemed he would have to risk his life for us, it actually was. He died saving us. He died as himself."

The boys' voice was shaky and his eyes weren't dry.


	5. Max

A girl with red hair squeezed the boys' shoulder as he passed her on his way back to the rest of them. The girl, who Richie didn't recognize, began to speak, but Richie was reeling from the what Lucas had said. Mike had saved their lives. And he died for them.

"I was late to the party. I moved to Hawkins a little over a year ago. Mike didn't like me. He couldn't stand that I might take El's place in the party. But when I fell off my skateboard, he went from being annoyed, to concerned. Because that's who he was. And as much as we bickered- which is even more than Dustin and I do!-, I knew he welcomed me as part of the party by the end of our first adventure. A few weeks ago, he pushed me out of the way a of speeding bullet and almost got himself killed. He also punched Billy in the face for me. So that's a win in my book. When Mike died, he died for his friends, something his recklessly loving nature seemed intent on doing. When Mike died, it wasn't in vain. He not only died protecting his friends- his family- but also the town and the world. With his death, the Mind Flayer was killed. The Upside Down was destroyed. The Gate was closed forever."

Now Richie was really confused.

The redhead smiled sadly and scurried off toward the boy she had touched on the shoulder.


	6. Nancy

Nancy, while holding the other teenage boy's hand, walked up to the casket. She was crying softly. He shaky hand held a piece of paper.

Off the paper she read "When I was three years old my parents brought home Mike in blue blankets. I was overjoyed to have a baby brother. Until I held him. He puked on me. I cried and he, and infant, giggled. Ever since we had been at each others throats. I remember seeing those Hawkins Lab cans parked outside our house. I remember feeling terror that my brother was being hunted by them. I remember trying to call him from the walkie talkie. And I remember-" Her voice was shaking so bad, Richie could just understand her "- that feeling when he answered. Relief. Happiness. Love. Guilt. When Hopper brought him back to me I hugged him and he was frozen in confusion. I don't think we ever hugged before then." She started sobbing." When he- when he-"

The boy took the paper gently from her hand and began to read. "When he died, I wanted nothing more than to hug him. I watched his body fall. I wanted to hug him like I did that night, so long ago. I wanted a redo of our childhood and I wanted all those missed opportunities to hug him back. Now that I couldn't hug him ever again."

Nancy sobbed into the boy's chest as they walked back to the group. Richie's head was spinning, still.


	7. Hopper

A man stood in front of the crowd next. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive Mike for dying." He chuckled. "He broke my little girl's heart. But while he was alive, he treated her right. While I'd been keeping her safe- yet away, she'd been depressed for those 353 days. He wanted her safe. And he needed her happy. When he discovered that l'd been hiding her, we wasn't just pissed. He was angry. When he started screaming and punching, I knew all I had to do was hug that broken boy. I hugged him tighter then I've ever hugged anyone in my life, half to keep him from punching me again, half to give him comfort. As he cried, I told him how sorry I was. That's my clearest memory of him. Mike was the kids's selfless leader. But to me, he's that broken boy, screaming, cursing, punching, _sobbing_ , not for himself, but for the girl who he loved. For the girl I love."

The man, who had confused Richie even more, walked back to the group. Richie tried to piece together everything he'd heard. But the speeches weren't done yet.


	8. Will

Will Byers walked up to the casket.

"I never thought I'd have to do this. To speak at my best friend's funeral at the age of 14. It makes me angry and sad. He, of everyone, didn't deserve to die. All he ever did was care. When I was... when the Mind Flayer..." He stumbled over his words. But he seemed confident that the others knew what he was talking about. Richie sure didn't. "Mike never left my side. Every episode I had, he'd be there when I snapped out of it, peering at me with those big brown eyes full of worry. He never babied me. But when I didn't come to school, he came to my house. He slept with me all night. He slept by my bed at Hawkins lab. When Mike came back from... from Brenner, I sat at his bedside while at the hospital. He was always so eager to save others. But in that day, I needed to save him. He told me what happened and I did my best to comfort him. We managed to stop the Mind Flayer. But at what cost? Mike. The most selfless and caring person I know. My leader and my best friend."

Will was shaking and tears were pouring down his cheeks. A girl with curly, short, brown hair ran up to him. She was sobbing. But she hugged him and brought him back to the group. Richie didn't pay attention to him. He, sounding like a broken record, was just way to confused to try and understand what they were all talking about. He needed to ask them.


	9. We Kiss As Though Nothing Would Fall

When the ceremony was over and the casket was lowered, Richie cleaned off his glasses as he walked over to the kids on the ground, sobbing.

"MIKE?!" It was the girl with brown hair, running to him, tears flying off her face, a half smile, a hopeful smile on her face.

She rammed into him, but somehow, Richie didn't fall. It was like someone had caught him. The girl buried her face into his chest, sobbing.

"I knew you wouldn't break your promise. I knew you'd come back to me," she whispered.

Richie dropped his glasses. He didn't know what to do. This girl thought he was Mike.

She lifted her head up and, big brown eyes sparkling with tears, kissed him... on the lips! Her hands were on his neck and his hands were out in confusion. Her eyes were closed and his were wide open.

Richie wanted to pull away, but the girl was really strong...

Finally, she stopped. Not that Richie didn't want to kiss this girl. She thought he was Mike. And even Richie knew to not lead her on. However cute she may be, she also seemed scary, with a sense of power to her.

But when the girl looked up at him again, she wasn't smiling. She was frowning, tears had stopped flowing, and she looked as confused as Richie was.

The girl grabbed Richie's wrists and examined them. While she did that, he looked at her's. She was wearing Mike's dorky watch. And she... had a tattoo!?

The girl dropped his hands and jumped away. "Not Mike," she whispered.

The other kids had come over. Richie was pretty sure his face was bright red. "Yeah, uh, I'm his brother..." Richie realized what he said. "I mean cousin!"

"Richie?" Dustin asked, handing him his glasses.

"Wait brother?" The one who's name he couldn't remember asked.

Richie knew there was no going back from that. He rubbed his neck. "Yeah. We're twins. No matter how many times my dad and mom f*cked, they couldn't get pregnant. So Aunt Karen- my real mom- gave up one of her twins to my mom- aunt? Mike never knew."

The boys and the redhead looked at him strangely, but the other girl looked hurt. Richie put his glasses on.

"Okay, so I told you my story. Now what the f*ck happened to Mike?"

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. "Its a long story," Will said.

"Our parents are talking. I'll be here awhile."


	10. The Death Of Michael Wheeler

_**This is literally 3,500 words. Of pure pain, I mean what.**_

 _ **I had a hard time telling the story, but I hope you guys like it. If you did, leave a review.**_

 _ **(This isn't the last chapter btw.)**_

The kids sat in a circle under a tree, shivering.

Dustin and, he found out, Lucas told him what happened in 1983. Max and Will helped them tell the next adventure. Then they got to when Mike died.

"It turned out Brenner, the lab guy, wasn't dead," Dustin said. "Hopper and El's Aunt Becky took her on a surprise vacation to get her away from Brenner."

"And the Gate wasn't closed forever," Lucas added.

"The Mind Flayer," Will began. "Sent me visions in my dreams. Mostly death and destruction. I woke up screaming every night." Will took a slow breath. "One night, my mom woke me up from a new dream. It was Mike. Brenner was there. And he was... hurting him."

Dustin, noticing that Will was havng trouble keeping his composure, continued for him. "Ms. Byers called Mrs. Wheeler. Mike wasn't in his bed. He wasn't in the house. His window was open and his sheets were all over the floor. On top of the heap was a note. '011 for Michael Wheeler.'"

"She called Hopper," Max told Richie. "He came back, with El as his stowaway. She'd seen Mike in the Void."

"It took the adults and older kids awhile to plan." Will had regained enough of himself to continue telling the story. "So El, Lucas, Dustin, Max, and I snuck away. We thought we could sneak in with El and get Mike out."

"But we were wrong. They had anticipated that very tactic. They let us reach Mike." Lucas eyes had gone misty.

Max looked at El. She knew this was one of the parts that upset her the most. But it was important to the story. And better for Max to tell it than one of the idiotic and insensitive boys.

"El-" She began slowly.

"Lost it!" Dustin practically yelled, excitedly.

He shut up with one glare from Max, who tried to think of how to best describe what happened.

 _El nodded her head and the lock on the heavy door broke. Lucas, who had reached for the door handle, scrambled away as El swiped her hand to the side, flinging the door open. She stormed in, arms raised, with an aura of raw power. The four others ran in after her, then, suddenly feeling the aura shatter, looked around wildly._

 _In the middle of El's room stood Brenner. He wore a crisp suit and a cold smile._

 _"Papa," El whispered. Her hands fell to her sides. "Mike."_

 _In Brenner's hand was the collar of a striped shirt, spattered with blood. Mike, barely conscious, hung from it. His face was bloody and bruised. The skin revealed under his shirt was black and blue._

 _"El," he croaked. "El, no..."_

 _El forced open Brenner's hand and caught Mike as he fell to the ground. She pulled him across the room towards her, all while not moving her feet. Brenner laughed._

 _"You shouldn't have brought all of them. Now instead of saving your boyfriend, you've doomed them all to an adolescent death," Brenner sneered._

 _El screamed and pushed him to the wall. Not hard enough to kill him. Even after what he did to Mike, she still couldn't kill_ Papa.

 _"El, come on!" Max yelled at the girl, who still hadn't let Brenner down. The girls had become closer after making up after Max's first encounter with El. Max knew exactly to say to get her moving. "Mike needs to get out of here!"_

 _El dropped Brenner and ran after them. Dustin and Lucas supported Mike between them. Max sported Lucas' slingshot. Will may or may not have stolen Steve's bat._

 _El fell into pace with Will. "I need you to get Mike out of here."_

 _Will looked at her like she had five heads. "Duh?"_

 _"No. I mean," She scrambled for how to say this. "They're going to use every force they have to get me. If you guys can slip out, if you guys can get Mike to safety, don't look back."_

 _"El-"_

 _"Promise me Will."_

 _Up ahead she heard Dustin and Lucas talking to Mike. "Yeah, buddy, she's right back there. She's okay."_

 _"I promise."_

 _They ran up through the building, as fast as Mike could go. El took out soldiers with a wave of her hand as they ran. Her heart skipped a beat when they made it to the atrium._

 _That's when something his her in the leg. Something that_ hurt.

 _She fell to the ground. When she glanced at it, quickly, she saw that her calf was bleeding profusely._

 _A bullet._

 _They'd shot her._

 _Soldiers surrounded her. Her friends were no where to be seen._

 _"Go Max!" She heard Will yell._

 _Through a gap in the wall of soldiers, she saw her friends running. A few soldiers were chasing them. El yelled and pushed all the soldiers around her away. The ones going after her friends changed course, running towards something much more valuable- her._

 _But El's strength was weakening and she didn't know what else to do besides_ push.

 _So she did that- she kept pushing until she couldn't feel the pain in her leg or the muscles in her arms. Until the blood from her nose trickled down her chin and splattered onto the white tile and the rest of her came crashing down with it._

 _In the fuzzy numbness she was watching through, she could see her friends stop running. Max was holding the bat now. Lucas had his sling shot. Dustin and Will were holding Mike. Holding Mike_ back _from running to her. She couldn't hear him, but she could feel him screaming her name._

 _She knew she had done a terrible thing to Will, forcing him to do that. But she couldn't feeling anything more than a quick bit of guilt on top of heart destroying pain for Mike, before all she saw was Papa, then black._

The party did their best to tell Richie all of this. They proceeded to tell him about getting back to the cabin. Joyce had hollered at Will for running away. Hopper had glared at all of them, before noticing that El was gone. He had asked where she was. Then he had yelled it.

Dustin had told him. Hopper had looked ready to beat the snot out of all four of them, until a weak voice reached them.

 _"It's not their fault."_

 _Mike limped around the corner. Dustin and Lucas had dropped him on the couch before the other four kids ran into the kitchen to tell the adults to drive them to the hospital. Before they could even talk, they were being yelled at._

 _Nancy made a noise halfway through a squeal and a sob and tackled him with a hug. He bit his lip to keep from crying out in pain, knowing Nancy would hate it if she knew she hurt him._

"We brought him to the hospital, Nancy refusing to leave his side the entire time," Lucas told them.

"I can still picture the poor desk lady's face," Dustin mused. "When we all walked in."

Richie could imagine what they must of looked like, but he had to ask. "You saved Mike though. He's alive. I don't understa-"

Lucas cut him off. "It wasn't over yet. We knew we needed to save El from Brenner."

"While the doctors helped Mike, the rest of us explained what happened. It was a little awkward and we got some very odd looks from other people in the waiting room." Dustin laughed.

"Mrs. Wheeler came after that and was freaking out. Hopper had to hold her back from the room where Mike was in pretty bad condition. It wasn't critical or anything. But they hadn't fed him well and he had many bruises and probably broken things," Lucas explained.

"Mrs. Wheeler hogged him when we were all allowed to see him," Will told Richie. "But I noticed how Mike grew increasingly uncomfortable. Everyone was yelling, trying to be heard over each other."

"Will totally flipped!" Dustin exclaimed excitedly. "He screamed for us all to leave! And Hopper and Mrs. Wheeler actually listened."

"Yeah well you guys weren't helping him!" Will retorted, annoyed. To Richie he continued. "I sat with Mike for awhile and asked him what happened. He was mad at me for not letting him save El. But I did my best to get through to him."

 _Will turned back to Mike after Hopper closed the door. His friend was silent, refusing to look at him. He fidgeted with his bandages._

 _Will sat down on the edge of Mike's bed. "Mike. You don't have to tell me what happened right now. But eventually, you'll need to tell someone. It can be me, Nancy, Dustin, Lucas... El." Mike flinched. "You can't keep it all inside."_

 _The doctors had allowed Mike to shower before they rewrapped his bandages, so his hair was no longer greasy and thick with blood. Mike no longer smelled like sweat and puke, nor blood. He was clean, and besides the injuries he sustained, you wouldn't be able to tell anything was wrong with him. Unless you looked into his huge, dark, shattered eyes._

 _"You left her."_

 _Will, who had been intently staring at the floor, swung his head when Mike spoke. He met those sad eyes, full of pain and, he noticed with what felt like a punch to the gut, a little bit of anger._

 _"She told me to-" Will began to explain._

 _"You didn't have to listen."_

 _Will swung his legs onto the bed and faced Mike. "I know. And I regret it. But I had to save you. If we stayed, we would have died. And then we couldn't save her and destroy everyone there next time, with more fire power."_

 _Mike looked away. Will grabbed one of his hands, holding it in his own. "Mike... will you tell me what happened?"_

 _Mike shook his head._

 _"I know that you're our paladin," Will whispered. "But even you need to be saved sometimes.. Just look at me!" Will laughed. "This is the first time it hasn't been 'Oh no Will's missing!' 'Oh no Will's in trouble!' It's okay to need help."_

 _There was a long moment of silence._

 _"Can you come over here?" Mike asked. He moved over to make room for Will next to him._

 _Will nodded. He crawled over and sat on top of the covers. Mike was quite a few inches taller than him, the tallest in the party compared to the shortest. But as soon as Will sat down and put his arm under Mike's head, the other boy curled up into him. Will remembered all the nights he'd spent with Jonathan, plagued with nightmares and visions. Will remembered being where Mike was._

 _"They hurt me, Will," Mike whispered. "I didn't think they actually would. But they did."_

 _He told Will how they hurt him, told him how the illusion kids had grown up with was gone, that no, adults wouldn't protect them. Adults hurt them._

 _Mike cried and Will hugged him into his chest, brushing his fingers through Mike's hair._

 _By the time the others came back in, both were asleep. Mike had a slight smile on his face._

"I still don't understand! You were all safe! All you had to do was call the cops on that motherf*cker and everyone would be safe," Richie complained.

"We did," Max told him sadly. "But Brenner had corrupted the system. We literally had Mike, who had been on the missing list for a few weeks, go to the FBI. But it was Brenner, and they were in on it."

"So we had to go after El ourselves," Dustin said.

"Hopper found out that there was a presentation to be taking place at the lab, of a 'recovered weapon'. He thought that they could sneak in and get her out," Lucas explained. "Hopper, Joyce, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve snuck in, in uniform."

"Nancy couldn't stop checking Jonathan out, it was so funny," Dustin snickered. "And Jonathan had his eyes all over Steve's butt."

"Anyway," Max continued pointedly. "They left us all with Mrs. Wheeler, who refused to let Mike leave. But Dustin, Will, Lucas, and I snuck away. We wanted to help. We kid in the back of one of the trucks being brought in, the military style with canvas for doors."

"Mike was so upset at being left behind, but we told him it was for his own good. He was hurt and weak," Lucas said. "But he came after us, once his mother fell asleep."

"The plan was working." Will's face had become stormy. "But it always seems that way."

"I had hacked into their computer system," Dustin admitted. "And erased any trace of us in their database. Or at least I thought I did. I'd only made it go away for a few hours. Hopper's crew was in the middle of watching the presentation. They snatched guns as they passed other visitors in uniform. I disabled their cameras after sneaking into the main security office. We snuck into the back of the presentation room."

"That's when everything went to-"

"Sh*t?" Richie offered

"Yeah." Max nodded. "the security cameras came back on, facial recognition kicked in, and alarms started blaring. Of course, Mike decided to enter the room at this point. El, who had been ripped out of the Void, saw him. She saw one of the soldiers tackle him to the ground, then the rest of us were taken down. She screamed and suddenly, a tremor shook the room. Everyone stopped moving. It was silent. Then the wall cracked open. The Gate was reopening."

"It was crazy!" Dustin exclaimed. "All the soldiers ran away. Lucas, Max, and I did too, towards the others who were by the door. But Will ran _toward_ the Gate. El ran toward Mike. We watched a long, shadow-like leg reached out and-"

 _Will was sure of three things._

 _It was the Mind Flayer._

 _And, d_ _espite what he told Joyce, Will knew he wasn't completely severed from its connection. He was no longer possessed, but there was still something there. His dreams had proved that._

 _He was right about those, so he had to be right about the other thing._

 _That_ he _had to kill it._

 _But what he didn't know, was how to do that._

 _He heard his mother scream his name. He knew she was fighting Hopper to get over to him, to stop him. But Will couldn't assure her that he'd be back soon, that he'd be safe. He was fairly certain of one more thing._

 _This would probably kill him._

 _Will kept running, past El and Mike. Mike called out for him. He didn't stop._

 _The Mind Flayer's arm was squeezing out through the crack. When Will reached it, he didn't hesitate. He knew what he had to do._

 _With a roar, Will reached out and grabbed the shadowy shape. Even though it seemed like his fingers would slip right through it, they didn't. His nails found something to sink into. It was how he imagined a cloud might feel, only ice cold and ruff, rather than fluffy. He clamped his other hand onto the other side._

 _Will pictured all his friends, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max, El. He remembered back to that one day in Mike's basement, playing DnD, teaching the girls how to play. Mike's family had gotten a record player and let Mike bring it down to the basement, surprising Will by placing the Clash's album_ Combat Rock _on the turntable._

 _"This is a public service announcement!" The had speakers blasted. The boys looked at each other, before all screaming "WITH GUITAR!"_

 _Will remembered watching Star Wars with his mom and brother for the first time. They had never seen it and, on Will's birthday, decided to have a marathon. He told them extra facts and all about the making of the movie._

 _Will opened his eyes and with something he didn't know he had inside of him, he imagined tearing the Mind Flayer apart. He felt it working because he felt his own body being ripped in half._

 _The crack, which had been getting bigger as the Mind Flayer forced its way through, began to shrink. Will turned his head and saw El next to him._

 _The Mind Flayer roared, or at least Will thought that's what that inhuman sound was. It was deafening, but satisfying. Will knew that what he was doing must have been working. He didn't know how he was doing it, but he was doing it._

 _He heard someone yelling in his ear, but the wind and screaming he, the Mind Flayer, and El were doing, made it too loud to understand._

 _He felt the Mind Flayer's force pushing into him. He knew this was the end. But he wasn't upset, or even scared. He was saving his friends and... honestly? He was surprised that he'd survived until now._

 _Just when he thought he was taking his last breath, someone forced him out of the way. Will fell to the ground, the connection broken, but not destroyed. It'd been passed on to someone else._

 _Will frantically tried to identify his replacement, but the light that was building around the figure was too blinding. They screamed and that's when Will identified them._

 _"MIKE!" He wailed, tears suddenly stinging his eyes._

 _There was a flash and a bang and suddenly Will's world was black._

 _When Will came to, he wondered why he wasn't dead._

 _He sat up slowly, his head swiveling around, searching for the answer to why he was still alive._

 _He saw two figures in the dark, illuminated by one remaining fluorescent light. One, he recognized as El. Will crawled over to her. She was kneeling over someone he couldn't make out._

 _El looked up at him when he placed a hand on his shoulder. She had blood under her nose, dripping down off her chin. Will, on a hunch, felt under his own lip. His finger came back red. He also noticed that besides blood, tears were making their way down El's face. Will wondered why, until he saw who was on the ground, and his last thirty seconds of consciousness came flooding back._

 _The boy on the ground had tar black hair that flared on the cement underneath him. His chocolate brown eyes were wide open and glazed over, like they did when he got bored in class (pretty much all of them except Mr. Clarke's). His face was pale and littered with its normal amount of freckles. Under his nose was a pool of blood._

 _"Mike..." Will breathed. El sobbed into his unmoving chest._

 _Will carefully placed his hands underneath Mike's head and lifted it up. "Come on buddy, you gotta wake up for me..." Nothing happened. "For El..."_

 _Someone came sliding toward them. It was Nancy. She took Mike's head from Will and hugged him close. El brought her knees to her chest and began to shake as she rocked back and forth. "Mike..." She moaned._

 _Will didn't know why everyone was crying. The rest of his friends had come over. Will didn't know why he was crying. Mike's okay. Mike will be okay. Mike's always okay._

 _Joyce seized Will, as if she knew that the dead boy could've and would've been him. Jonathan tried to pry Nancy off of the corpse. He finally coaxed her into letting go, and the body fell to the ground._

 _Will pushed Joyce off of him and dove to catch Mike as he tumbled down. "Don't just drop him! That'll hurt him."_

 _Joyce leaned down toward Will. She cupped his face with her hands. "Honey, Mike... Mike can't get hurt."_

 _"Just because he's unconscious doesn't mean he can't get hurt, Mom."_

 _Before Joyce told him he knew. That's why he was crying. That's why El and Nancy were crying. That's why Dustin, Lucas, and Max were crying._

 _That's why Mike wasn't breathing._

 _Dead people don't breathe._

 _"Will you need to move!" Someone's voice was screaming in his mind. It was Mike. "Will!" It was what Mike had tried to say to him before he pushed him out of the way. "I'm so sorry, Will." He felt the push again. "Take care of her for me. Take care of El."_


	11. One Last Chance

Richie Tozier didn't say anything when the five kids in front of him finished telling him the story. Finished telling him how his cousin- twin- died.

Well, he did say one thing.

"Holy _f*ck._ "

And that was that. His parents called him over and he left with them, leaving Mike's friends by themselves.

Richie played his mental image of his brother's death, his stomach clenching and his head pounding.

He was right. _Holy f*cking f*ck._

His brother was dead.

That afternoon, that night, and the next morning, he mulled over the thought.

Mike's parents didn't have him sleep in the top bunk of Mike's bed like he usually would. Instead, they kept it locked. Richie slept in the basement, on the couch, facing the odd blanket fort.

Nancy and the rest of the Wheelers could barely look at him at dinner. At breakfast.

When Richie decided he'd had enough of being the "Mike that wasn't Mike" and was walking out the basement door to take a walk- _something-_ to free him from that feeling, he ran into the girl who kissed him yesterday, her hand raised to the door knob.

"Oh!" She gasped.

She did the same thing with her face that the Wheelers did, like she was trying to look past the glasses and see Mike Wheeler.

"I'm not f*cking Mike, okay?" He knew it was mean, but he was sick of this. "So if that's who you came here to see-"

"No." Her mouth barely moved. She winced. "Yes."

Richie scrunched his nose in confusion.

"Well, you can come inside," he said awkardly. "But I'm leaving."

He made to move past her, but she grabbed his wrist. He remembered, quite suddenly, her telekinetic powers. She was gazing down at the limb held tightly in her hands.

"I knew you weren't Mike." She spoke softly, almost as if she wasn't sure if she wanted him to hear or not. With the index finger of her opposite hand, she traced a line around his arm, around the wrist. "Papa- _Brenner_ \- hurt him here. Ropes. Cut." She rubbed the top of his hand roughly.

Richie was a but freaked out by her odd way of talking, but didn't give her a hard time, since she was, you know, raised in an isolated lab as a science experiment.

"And eyes."

Richie's head, which had been down, looking at their hands, shot up.

"Your's are..." She struggled for how to describe them. "Before broken."

Richie struggled for what to say. _I'm sorry?_ He definitely was sorry that this girl's boyfriend was tortured for information on her location.

Not just "this girl's boyfriend". His brother. Twin brother.

Weren't twins supposed to have weird connections and sh*t? Why didn't Richie feel pain when Mike did? Why didn't Richie feel when Mike died? Why didn't Richie feel this gaping, longing for Mike?

The girl- her name is El, Richie- pushed him gently inside.

"I did come for you," she told him. "But I also came for Mike."

Richie titled his head to the side confused.

"I wanted to tell you the rest of the story," she explained. "Before Mike was taken, I'd been on the phone with him. _When_ he was taken, actually. He heard the van coming down the street and recognized it. The men came up to his window, and he just sat there, talking to me. I was screaming for him to run. But he didn't. If they'd come here, they wouldn't leave without _something. Someone._ If not him, Nancy or his parents or Holly." El laughed slightly, as if she couldn't believe this boy was so selfless. Richie sure as hell couldn't. "'I promise we'll see each other again. I promise. I love you, El.'" El quoted Mike, telling Richie that those were his last words too her. "They smashed his window in, I heard it. He dropped the phone and yelled, then the line went dead."

Richie played with the fraying fabric of his shirt, not knowing what to do or say.

"I could've done something to save him."

And El began to cry.

"When they found the note, they also found his watch." El held up her wrist, showing his dorky nerd watch to Richie. "It's broken now." She pointed at the crack in plastic. "But the screen still displays one time. Three numbers."

Richie read them aloud. "3:53."

"3-5-3," El corrected. "Three hundred fifty three. That's how long we were apart last year. He called me every night. And I listened. Every night."

Richie ran his finger over the watch's screen.

"I told you that I also came here for Mike."

Richie nodded, even though it wasn't a question.

She smiled. And lifted her hands to his face, slipping his glasses off. She set them on the table next to the couch. With a gentle touch, El lead him over to the weird blanket fort, lifting the curtain-like blanket and pulling him inside.

Mike's nerdy super com was on the pillow she sat on. She picked it up, holding it in one hand and holding Richie's hand in the other.

"I didn't talk at his funeral because I had nothing to say to the people around us. I was there for Mike."

El looked at him- at Mike- and spoke into the super com.

"When you found me in the woods, November 7, 1983, I didn't know you. You didn't know me. But you took me into your house and you fed me and took care of me. You saved me. You kissed me, taught me what love really is. Love is- was- you, Mike. And when I watched you slowly going insane, looking for me, it broke me. I looked for my home, with Hopper, with Kali, but niether felt _right._ Until you held me in your arms, after 353 days, I hadn't known what my home truly was. Because you, Michael Wheeler, were not just love. Not just the boy who would lay with me and talk me through memories. Not just the boy with millions of beautiful freckles. Not just the boy with curls just as crazy as mine, when not dealt with. Not just the boy who gave me a chance. Not just the boy who asked me to the Snow Ball, knowing full well we might not make it to the next morning. Not just my first love, my first kiss, my first dance. Not just the boy who called me for 353 days. Not just the boy who let himself be tortured, instead of giving me up. Not just the boy who gave his life for his best friend. Not just my best friend. No, Michael Wheeler, you... you were my _home."_

Her voice had remained stable the whole time, until the last word, and she broke, sobbing, flinging herself onto Richie. He remained still for a few seconds, before wrapping his arms around her, smoothing her hair down, muttering- hopefully - comforting things in her ear.

Then she squirmed out, gazed at his face, whispered something inaudible (but Richie was almost certain that it was "Mike"), and kissed him for a few moments, before breaking down into more sobs. Richie, almost on instinct, cradled her tiny body in his arms, trying to ignore the tears gliding down his freckled face.

 **Wow well okay I'm actually crying? Maybe becaue I listened to both versions of Cancer (Mcr and Tøp), then Lucy by Skillet, and now Words Fail from DEH while writing this.**

 **And also because Mileven gives me emotions and this makes me angry because they didn't deserve this and I'm soooo mean and sorry and I hate that their story ended so soon and if this happens in the show I'm suing.**

 **(Also this wasn't ElxRichie, I just thought she'd want him to be Mike or something IDK.)**

 **Oh yeah, and this was the last chap, so review for either this chap or all of them idc, and have fun sobbing.**


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